Member of Parliament (MP) for Oforikrom Constituency, Ashanti Region and a member of the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee, Honourable Emmanuel Marfo, has divulged that the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) primaries held on 20th June 2020 was one of the best elections held amid COVID-19.
In an interview with Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show, he noted that while he could not speak for other constituencies, he observed that all health protocols were observed at his constituency.
“The party gave us the guideline of a maximum of 100 to be voting at a time and people are not to stay there. You go, cast your votes and then you leave. You wash your hands, you sanitize and then you vote and leave. Even if people wanted to hang around, the police were instructed that the gathering should not exceed the total one hundred (100) people. The protocols were duly followed”.
He stated, however, that the atmosphere at the coalition centres was what needed to be improved.
“I think the coalition centres were what we needed to look at again to refrain people. There were some places that the military and police had to really work hard before they could sack people. Elections are about interests and jubilation.
So in this case, controlling people who are jubilating over a win is not easy. I think generally is it a good model”, he added.
Prior to the NPP primaries, the party spelt out the guidelines and modalities for the conduct of the Party’s Parliamentary Primaries in the constituencies to elect Parliamentary Candidates for the 2020 General Elections.
Among these guidelines, the party emphasized that the Primaries shall be conducted in strict compliance with the COVID-19 health protocols announced by His Excellency President Nana Akufo-Addo. Accordingly, the Party, while making sure that not more than 100 people congregated at a voting centre, made available alcohol-based hand sanitizers at each polling centre for delegates to sanitize their hands before participating in the polls.
By: Alberta Dorcas N D Armah